Use of Force = tasers 53% of the time?

Chief Tom Kaye, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, said the public is being led to believe that [tasers] are used on a regular basis. [LINK]

Well perhaps because it is TRUE?

Kaye: According to 2007 statistics, there were 3.3 million police service calls in Canada, with 800,000 that involved a "criminal occurrence," he said. Of those, 98.5 per cent of the individuals were taken into custody with no force being used, he said. Of the remaining cases, 0.8 per cent involved the use of a taser, said Kaye, although he did not know how many of those situations involved drawing or deploying the weapon. "You get some idea of how rare it is that police officers actually have to use any of the use-of-force options that they carry," he said. [ibid]


Do the math. Always do the math.

About "800,000 criminal occurrences" in 2007. He says that "0.8%" of these involved use of a taser. "0.8%" seems like such a small number. He calls it "rare".

But 800,000 times 0.8% equals 6400 taser incidents during 2007.

That means that, in Canada during 2007, tasers were being used pretty darn close to every hour of every day (actually about 18 times per day). Hardly "rare".

Kaye's use of the word "rare" must mean that his data is slightly undercooked.


Here is another very interesting figure derived from Kaye's own numbers:

He said that 98.5% of the time, no force is used - therefore 1.5% of the time, force is used. But Kaye also stated that 0.8% of the time, the force used includes the taser. In other words, in 2007, when police in Canada used force of any description, just over half the time (0.8/1.5 = ~53%) it included use of a taser.

This is an amazing finding!

When police in Canada during 2007 used any 'force' of any description, then they're using the taser in more than half of those incidents (~53%).


53% !!!! "Rare" my ass.


These numbers provided by Chief Kaye are clear-cut evidence of the degree to which tasers are (were?) being misused, overused and abused in Canada.

Even Chief Kaye had to sheepishly admit that this sort of use pattern was often "not correct". [LINK]


So - what are the appropriate sanctions (at all levels) for this massive "not correct" street-level torturing of Canadians over the past few years? And who gets blamed when a bunch of twits swagger into Canada and corrupt impressionable minds with their propaganda and differing views on fundamental civil rights?

Much of the blame needs to fall at the Police Leadership level. They're supposed to know what is correct and what is "not correct" without having to be reminded of the basics by others.

When all the inquiries are done - heads must roll.


Lawyers in Canada should take advantage of Chief Kaye's admission that past use of tasers has been "not correct". It's well past time to launch some American-style lawsuits in answer to some of this American-style policing.